Ukrainian Self-Reliance League

Ukrainian Self-Reliance League (Союз українців самостійників; Soiuz ukraintsiv samostiinykiv, or СУС; SUS). An umbrella group of liberal nationalist Ukrainian-Canadian associations and institutions founded in 1927 at conventions in Edmonton and Saskatoon. The member groups of SUS include the Ukrainian Self-Reliance Association (Tovarystvo ukraintsiv samostiinykiv, or TUS); Ukrainian Women's Association of Canada (SUK); Canadian Ukrainian Youth Association (SUMK); Union of Ukrainian Community Centres of Canada (Soiuz ukrainskykh narodnykh domiv, or SUND); Ukrainian student residences in Edmonton (the Hrushevsky Institute, later Saint John's Institute), Saskatoon (Mohyla Ukrainian Institute), and Toronto (Saint Vladimir Institute, now Saint Volodymyr Institute); and Saint Andrew's College in Winnipeg. The association grew out of an informal grouping of leading figures among the Ukrainian intelligentsia in Canada (including Taras Ferley, Jaroslaw Arsenych, Wasyl Swystun, Petro Zvarych, and Julian Stechishin; Michael Stechishin, and Myroslaw Stechishin) which was centered around the newspaper Ukraïns’kyi holos and which established the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada in 1918. Its ideology of self-reliance, articulated most clearly by Myroslaw Stechishin and Swystun, has centered on the ideas of self-respect among individuals, organizations, and nations; self-sufficiency in politics, economics, and religion; and independence of thought and action. The application of these ideas has resulted in efforts to develop nonpartisan ‘all-Ukrainian’ community organizations among Ukrainians in Canada. SUS actively promoted strong civic involvement in Canada by its members. At the same time it wholeheartedly supported Ukrainian causes abroad, although it has consciously refrained from direct involvement with Old World political factions. The league was a founding member of the Ukrainian Canadian Committee in 1940.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Yereniuk, Emil. Tovarystvo Ukraïntsiv Samostiinykiv (TUS) / Ukrainian Self-Reliance Association of Canada (Edmonton 2014)
Martynowych, Orest. Ukrainians in Canada: The Interwar Years, Book 1 (Edmonton and Toronto 2016)

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]